Funding for men?s shelter withdrawn

THREE years of hard work to get a men's shelter in Gladstone has ended in a stalemate.

Roseberry Community Services president Ian Earnshaw said bureaucratic red tape was holding up any forward movement towards having crisis accommodation for men in place for some time.

'As a result funding of $100,000 secured from the Comalco Community Fund for the men's shelter has been withdrawn,' Mr Earnshaw said.

Comalco Community Fund (CCF) executive officer Mitchell Innes said Roseberry had been advised the funding was not going to go ahead, but they were happy to consider any new application. 'The CCF offered the financial support in 2003, almost three years ago, but additional funding from other bodies could not be secured.

'However, we have offered assistance in the de- velopment of a new application if required and are happy to work with Roseberry in whichever way we can,' he said.

Mr Earnshaw said Roseberry had access to sev- eral units that were vacant at the moment which could be used for crisis accommodation, but they have not been allowed to utilise them for that purpose.

'We sent a request to the minister to change the use of the units to emergency accommodation, but it has not been acted on.

'As a result we have not been able to put a viable option to Comalco to keep the funding in place.'

Mr Earnshaw said they were now trying to raise money for a project officer to manage the units as well as work on policies that could enable them to secure government support.

A spokesperson for the Minister for Public Works, Housing and Racing said the department didn't have a problem with Roseberry Community Services using the units for men's crisis accommo- dation provided it had ongoing funding in place to maintain the service.